8. A review platform.

Customers will check your reviews before they make a service call. That means not
only do you need to regularly increase your reviews—you need to make sure they’re
actually good ones so you rank in local searches against other HVAC companies.  

Some platforms we recommend for collecting and gathering reviews are: 

Google My Business: A must for ranking first in local searches and making sure
potential clients find you
ACCA (Air Conditioning Contractors of America): The official non-profit association for
professionals that install and maintain HVACR 
Your Facebook business page: Great for when people regularly ask for
recommendations on Facebook, and your active profile with good reviews is ready to
be shared
Angie’s List: Similar to Google My Business, but for people who use Bing
Better Business Bureau: Regularly used by people to establish trust with a newer
business
Yelp: Used by people looking for an honest review of local businesses

Once you’re listed on a platform, you’ll have a review link you can share. This is a
must for texting review requests, which we’ll talk about more later. 

You don’t want to send all these review links to people at once, because that would
be ridiculously overwhelming. So instead, prioritize sending the link from the platform
you get the most engagement on, or the one that you currently need more reviews
on.

Now that you've got these things prepped—which are helpful for your HVAC
business anyway—let's combine those with texting, so you can serve clients better in
less time.

14 Ways to Implement Texting

Into Your Day-to-Day Processes
1. Make your current number textable.
You've been using the same phone number for years to keep in contact with your
existing customers. Why not use it to text too?

Text Request can add texting to your line without affecting your voice services.
There are a few technical things that happen in the background (don't worry, we
won't bore you about that unless you ask). But the short story is we just need your
permission to set it up, and then you’re golden.

It makes promoting your phone number so much easier when customers don’t have
to save two different numbers to call and text you.

Once the texting is enabled, you can shoot your existing contacts a message like:
 “You can text us now to schedule your next tune up!”

Is Your Number Eligible for SMS Hosting?

Check to see if you can use Text Request with your current business number.
Your Name
Your Email
Number you wish to use
CHECK MY NUMBER

2. Advertise you text to increase inbound

leads.
When someone’s heating and cooling goes out, they want help ASAP. Advertising
they can text you immediately can be what separates them from contacting you vs.
your competitor, first. 

Texting is the number one way people want to communicate with your business,
because it’s faster and more convenient than a phone call (especially when
someone is in panic mode). It’s also the simple and straightforward language people
prefer to speak. 

Giving potential customers the power to reach you the way they want will draw more
of them to you. So spread the word “Hey, we text!” on everything, including:

 Your website

 Social media

 Brick-and-mortar store

 Digital ads

 Flyers

3. Convert website visitors with SMS chat.

Potential customers will check out your website before they decide to work with you.
It's part of their decision process that can and will determine if they take the next step
with you.

So you need to make it easy for them to connect with you when they do reach your
website—which our SMS Chat widget does by giving them the ability to reach you
directly from your website for things like:

 Asking for help

 Starting a maintenance request

 Scheduling a tune up

 General queries about their systems

You'll see the biggest impact if you already have a marketing plan that's driving
traffic to your website. It’s just one more way to convert more inbound leads!
 “ We’ve gotten a 2600% response rate

increase on our website using Text Request’s

SMS chat feature vs. email forms.”
Patrick Cundiff, Director of Marketing
Loud Rumor

4. Create autoresponses to confirm

maintenance requests.
Remember that after hours plan we talked about earlier? 

Autoresponders give you a way to make sure people always get a response, even
when you’re not in the office.  

“Thanks for contacting [HVAC Business Name]. Use [link] to start a maintenance request."

You can even set customers up for things beyond emergency service request,
including:

 General responses to day-time inquiries

 Holiday or “out of office” notices

 Important updates

There’s no limit to how many autoresponders you create.

5. General scheduling and confirmations.

Scheduling a maintenance visit over the phone can take days, so skip the phone tag
and just text customers a link to schedule instead.

This process can be even faster when you use a scheduling software like Schedule
Engine. Just include Schedule Engine links in your scheduling texts, and customers
will know exactly what step to take next. 

They just click the link, schedule the time and date they want you to stop by, and
you’re both ready to go!